DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

SABBAVARAM, VISAKHAPATNAM, A.P., INDIA

PROJECT TITLE: INDUS VALEY CIVILIZATION

SUBJECT: HISTORY

NAME OF THE FACULTY: Dr. VISWACHANDRA NATH MADASU

Name of the Candidate: S.KRISHNA VAMSI

Roll No. : 2017095
Semester: 1

1
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to teacher Dr. Viswachandra Nath
Madasu sir who gave me the golden opportunity to do the project of Indus Valley Civilization,
which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things I
am really thankful to sir.

2
 ABSTRACT

INDUS VALLEY CVILIZATION

Indus valley civilization was an ancient civilization which is now Pakistan and northwest
India. It is on the Indus river basin. Urbanization was observed in between 4000 BCE and 3000
BCE.

At its peak the area must have been inhabited by well over 5 million people. The people
of Indus valley civilization were the first dentists. They had the world's first planned cities with
downtowns and residential areas (and perhaps, some of the best planned cities in the sub-
continent of India to date).  They built urban sanitation systems nonpareil in the Ancient World
till much later. The Indus valley civilization developed the most precise measurements humans
had at that time and they followed decimal system even. They were the first people to use
buttons and they were the first having dockyard even, it is in Lothal which is artificially
engineered. Towns in Indus valley civilization were laid in a rectangular pattern. Most of the
houses are two storied and very spacious.

Length, mass, time was accurately measured by the people of Indus valley civilization.
Art was in full form during this period. There are three stages of Harappan Civilization which are
Pre-Harappan, Harappan and Post Harappan known as Rojde, Desalpur and Surkotada
respectively. Lothal, Balakot, Suktagendor and Allahdin(Pakistan) are the cities in Harappan
civilization that were major ports at that time. Wheels used in Harappan were axeless.
Information about rituals is not exactly known. Religious activities were performed by priests.
Ritualistic baths were part of Harappan Civilization. There is very less information about the
language used in Indus valley civilization but some scholars believe its closeness to Vedic script.
Decline of Indus valley civilization is expected because of natural disasters like flood, drought
etc. Some people believe that decline is because of wars with Aryan Civilization. It is not exactly
known. After Indus valley civilization it is said that Aryans entered India near Sarasvati River.

The sources of my abstract are from publication of UNESCO written by A. H. Dani and B.K.
Thapar.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. SOURCES

………………………………………………………………………………….5

2. INTRODUCTION

………………………………………………………………………….6

3. ORIGIN OF INDUS VALLEY PEOPLE ……………………………………………….

…7

4. EXTENT

…………………………………………………………………………………....9

5. CITIES IN INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION

…………………………………………..10

6. ARCHITECTURE, AUTHORITY AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

……………...11

7. INSTITUTIONS AND HIERARCHIES ……………………………………………….…

12

4
 8. LIFE OF PEOPLE ……………………………………………………………………..

….14

9. RELIGION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

…………………………………………….16

10. TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION …………………………………………………...17

11. INNOVATIONS………………………………………………………………………....18

12. DECLINE ……………………………………………………………………………….20

13. CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………………….22

14. BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………….23

1. SOURCES

It is believed that Harappa’s used Indus Script, a language consisting of symbols. A

collection of texts written on the clay and stone plates discovered at Harappa, dated 3300-3200
BC, contain trident and plant marks. This Indus Script suggests that writing developed
independently in the Indus River Valley civilization used in Mesopotamia and in ancient Egypt.

Up to 600 different Indus symbols were found on stamps, small tablets, ceramic pots and
more than a dozen other materials. Typical Indus inscriptions do not have more than four or five
characters long, most of which are very small. The longest on a single surface, which is less than
1 inch (or 2.54 cm.) square, is 17 signs long. Characters are largely pictorial but include many
abstract signs that do not seem to change over time.

5
 It is believed that the entries have been written mainly from right to left, but it is not clear if
this script is a complete language. Without a "Rosetta Stone" to be used as a comparison with
other writing systems, the symbols remained indecipherable to linguists and archaeologists.

6
 2. INTRODUCTION

Indus valley civilization was an ancient civilization which is now Pakistan and northwest
India. It is on the Indus river basin. Urbanization was observed in between 4000 BCE and 3000
BCE.

At its peak the area must have been inhabited by well over 5 million people. The people
of Indus valley civilization were the first dentists. They had the world's first planned cities with
downtowns and residential areas (and perhaps, some of the best planned cities in the sub-
continent of India to date).  They built urban sanitation systems nonpareil in the Ancient World
till much later. The Indus valley civilization developed the most precise measurements humans
had at that time and they followed decimal system even. They were the first people to use
buttons and they were the first having dockyard even, it is in Lothal which is artificially
engineered. Towns in Indus valley civilization were laid in a rectangular pattern. Most of the
houses are two storied and very spacious.

7
 ORIGIN OF
INDUS VALLEY PEOPLE

About 5000 years ago (in around 2500 B.C), people built cities beside the Indus River in
India sub-continent. The Indus, once known as “the king river” in ancient Indian literature, rises
in the Himalayan mountains and flows 2,900 kilometers (1800 miles) to the Arabian Sea. The
longest river of modern Pakistan, its waters are important for irrigation. The Indus provides
water for crops and animals and routes for trade. The Indus provides water for crops and animals
and routes for trade. The Indus Valley was a good place to build a civilization. The first
civilization developed near great rivers, people built cities and development writing, arts and
crafts, trade links, religion and government. Indus cities such as Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa,
were among the first finest in Asia. There were many Indus cities, near other rivers as far north
as Afghanistan and southeast into India. We don’t know much about the people who built these
cities and whose ancient way of life shaped the culture of modern India and Pakistan. This Indus
Valley rediscovered in 1830 by Charless Masson, he found Harappa.

The Indus civilization represents the first manifestation of urban development in the
plains of the Indus valley and its extension along the coast of the Arabian Sea. The four main the
settlements so far excavated provide the material to reconstruct the content the civilization. Two
are in Pakistan: Harappa, usually identified with Hariyupiya of the Rig-Veda, is located on an

8
ancient bed (sukbrawa) of the Ravi River in the Sahiwal district Punjab and Mohenjo-daro4
(literally "mound of the dead") is the right bank of the Indus River is the Larkana district of Sind.
The other two sites are in western India; Lothal5 is situated on the Sabarmati River at the head of
the Gulf of Cambay on the west coast of India, and Kalibangan6 (literally "black bracelets") if
you enter a ticket 310 km northwest of Delhi along the left bank of the now-dry Ghaggar
(ancient Sarasvati) river in northern Rajasthan.

The antecedents of this urban civilization have been described above in chapter 11 but it
is not clear how and under which conditions there was a transition to urban development place.
Trade through territorial connections through Afghanistan with Eastern Iran and Turkmenistan
has been observed in previous cultures. Hindu civilization, for the first time, even established
foreign trade. The favorites have won with the new mechanics of commerce may have allowed
an adventurous community to bid for mastery of their own resources and merge the foundations
of a political system that has imposed its supremacy the entire Indus area. This is the case with
the evidence available at Harappa, where a new citadel complex had been imposed on a former
settlement of the village. The Kalibangan the test shows again a new urban planning model in a
fortified settlement earlier. This sudden change is also noted in Amri, Balakot and Kot Diji.

It's the Kot Diji cultural type that is widely spread, as evidenced by the excavations of
Sarai Kala, Gumla, Rahman Dheri, in the Indus plain near Dera Ismail Khan and many more
places of Punjab. It is only Mohenjo-daro who still has the mystery, as his former one the levels
have not yet been excavated due to the rise in the water table in the last century. These levels will
probably reveal a cultural complex of Kot Dijian, or a mix with other early cultural elements
known to Sind and Baluchistan. However, the new urban development shows a fundamental
difference in their cultural characteristics, which, though based on local geography and ecology,
needs a motivational inspiration that has not been highlighted in archeology data so far
recovered. Therefore, the origin of Hindu civilization remains unknown and it is a question of
theoretical speculations.

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 3. EXTENT

The Indus valley civilization was bigger than sumer or ancient Egypt. With an area of 1.3
million square kilometers (500,000 square miles), it covered what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan
and northwest India. It is not sure how many people lived in the Indus valley. Estimates range
from 1 to 5 million. The biggest cities were Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Mohenjo-Daro was
home to 30,000 to 50,000 people, perhaps more.

Formerly it was believed that the extent of Harappan civilization was confined within
only the Indus Valley. The Archaeological Department of the Governments of India and Pakistan
have unearthed the relics of Harappan culture at many places outside the Indus Valley. The
relevant excavations have proved that the extent of the Harappan civilization covered an area of
1550 kilometers from north to south and about 1100 K. M. from west to east.

The traces of the Harappan civilization have been found also in the Narmada Valley in
Deccan. It is expected that further excavations will increase the extent of the Harappan
civilization. There are reasons to believe that the Harappans spread their civilizations eastward.
The older view that the Harappan culture was exotic and had no capacity to expand within the
Indian sub-continent has lost its force due to the discovery of Harappan relics in wide areas of
India.1

The main centers of the Harappan civilization as revealed by the recent excavations are:

 Mohenjo-Daro in Sind. The town was situated on the bank of the Indus.
 Harappa in Punjab and the town was situated on the bank of the Ravi.
 Kalibangan in Rajasthan situated on the bank of the Gharghara.
 Rupar in Hariyana situated on the bank of the Sutlej.
 Lothal in Gujrat situated on the bank of the Bhagawar River.
 Rangpore in Gujrat.
 The Narmada and the Tapti belt.
4. CITIES IN INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
1
https://www.importantindia.com/876/extent-of-the-indus-valley-civilization-harappan-
civilization/, last accessed October 4th 2017.
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 Archaeological finds suggest that people lived west of the Indus River by about 8000
B.C. They were herders and farmers moving from place to place. Later, people began to settle in
villages in the Indus Valley. The river floods (like those of the River Nile in Egypt) provided rich
soils for crops. Villages grew into towns in the river delta and later, from around 2600 B.C, the
Indus people started to build walled cities.

Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and Rakhigarhi which is recently partially excavated,

demonstrate the first known urban sanitation systems in the world. The ancient Indus sewage and
drainage systems developed and used in cities across the Indus region were much more advanced
than those in the contemporary Middle East urban sites and even more efficient than in many
areas of Pakistan and India today. The single houses drew water from the wells, while the
drainage water was directed to the pipelines covered by the main roads. Houses open only to
inner courtyards and smaller streets, and even the smallest houses on the outskirts of the city are
considered linked to the system, which supports the conclusion that cleaning was a matter of
great importance.

Living in a city had advantages. A city was a centre for government and trade, where
people could develop special skills in making pottery and metal tools. City dwellers felt safe
living inside brick and earth walls with watchtowers and gates to protect them from enemies or
wild animals. At the city gates, officials could check traders and farmers going in and out of the
city plus a sign of a settled organized way of life.

The Indus Valley civilization contains another 1,000 installations and installations. The
tools that contains are systematic drainage systems, trash collection systems and public granaries
and baths. Although there were large walls and citadels, there is no evidence of monuments,
palaces or temples. The uniformity of Harappan artifacts suggests some form of authority and
governance to regulate seals, weights and bricks. Central area in the city is heavily fortified. 2

2
http://www.crystalinks.com/induscivilization.html, last accessed 4th October, 2017.
11
 5. ARCHITECTURE, AUTHORITY AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

Harappans has demonstrated an advanced architecture with naval yards, barns,

warehouses, brick platforms and protective walls. These massive walls probably protected
Harappans from flooding and might have destroyed military conflicts. Unlike Mesopotamia and
Ancient Egypt, the inhabitants of the Indian Valley civilization have not built large monumental
structures. There is no concrete proof of palaces or temples (or even kings, armies or priests) and
larger structures can be barns. The town of Mohenjo-daro contains the "big bath", which could
have been a large public bath and social area. Archaeological records do not provide immediate
answers to a central authority, or representations of power-folk in Harappa society. The
extraordinary harrppans uniformity artifacts are evident ceramic gaskets, weights and dimensions
and bricks with standardized weights, suggesting some form of authority and government.

Over time, there were three main theories about Harappa's governance or government
system. The first is that there was a single state that encompasses all civilization communities,
given the resemblance of the artifacts, the proof of the area project, the standardized brick-sized
ratio and the apparent creation of settlements close to sources of raw materials. The second
theory postulates that there was only one line, but a number of them representing each of the
urban centers, including Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, and other communities. Finally, the experts
have theorized that the Indus Valley civilization had rulers as we mean it, with everyone
enjoying the same status.

Harappans has demonstrated an advanced architecture with naval yards, barns,

warehouses, brick platforms and protective walls. These massive walls probably protected
Harappans from flooding and might have destroyed military conflicts. Unlike Mesopotamia and
Ancient Egypt, the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization have not built large monumental
structures. There is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples - or even kings, armies or
priests - and larger structures can be stables. The town of Mohenjo-daro contains the large
bathroom, which could have been a large public bath and social area.3

3
http://www.crystalinks.com/induscivilization.html, last accessed 4th October 2017.
12
 6. INSTITUTIONS AND HIERARCHIES

Archaeological records do not provide immediate answers to a center of authority or

representations of people in office in Harappan and there are not a few written records to consult.
However, Harrapan's artifacts show an extraordinary uniformity. Ceramics, seals, weights and
bricks with standard sizes and weights suggest some form of authority and government, although
it is not clear exactly which form.

Over the course of time, various theories on Harappan's government systems have been
developed. One theory is that there was only one state that included all communities of
civilization; This theory is based on the resemblance of artifacts, based on the evidence of
planned settlements, the standardized proportion of the brick dimension, and the apparent
establishment of settlements close to sources of raw materials. Another theory states that there is
no single governess, but a number of leaders representing each of the urban centers, including
Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and other communities. It seems likely that there is no centralized and
powerful state, but that various classes and power centers have been integrated into a
decentralized structure.

Written testimonies have given historians a wealth of information about the ancient
civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, but very few written materials were discovered in the
Indo Valley. Though seal inscriptions seem to have written information, scholars have not been
able to decipher the writing of the Indo. As a result, they have had considerable difficulties in
understanding the nature of the state and religious institutions of the Indian Valley civilization.
We know relatively little about their legal codes, procedures, and government systems.

Historians have made educated hypotheses about the nature of Harappa's civilization
available artifacts and physical structures. Some experts have theorized that India's civilization
had no governor, as we understand them, that everyone enjoyed equality. Some evidence in
support of this conclusion is that most Harappa residents seem to have enjoyed a comparatively
equal health and that there were many elite burials, archaeologists have discerned through the
mortuary room analysis-study of graves and deposits which contain human remains. a lot of
information about the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, but very few written
materials have been discovered in the Indo Valley. Though seal inscriptions seem to have written

13
information, scholars have not been able to decipher the writing of the Indo. As a result, they
have had considerable difficulties in understanding the nature of the state and religious
institutions of the Indus Valley civilization. We know relatively little about their legal codes,
procedures, and government systems.

Historians have made educated hypotheses about the nature of Harappa's civilization
available artifacts and physical structures. Some experts have theorized that India's civilization
had no governor, as we understand them, that everyone enjoyed equality. Some evidence in
support of this conclusion is that most Harappa residents seem to have enjoyed a comparatively
equal health and there are not many elite burials, archaeologists have discerned through the
Mortuary-study of tombs and deposits containing human remains.

However, this definitely does not prove that Harappan society did not have any social
hierarchy and could be the result of other factors, such as different beliefs about future life. Some
scholars indicate different housing estates and different heights of structures to suggest that
different social classes occupy different levels in cities. Others find objects such as painted
ceramics, bracelets, embossed ornaments, and even location within the city as wealth indicators.
A considerable degree of craftsmanship also suggests a certain degree of socioeconomic
stratification.

It is widely believed that Harappan civilization was a peaceful one that did not participate
in any war, but there is no convincing evidence to support this belief and some archaeologists
consider it a penetrating myth. Some scholars argue that the Harappans were mostly peaceful
because there were no natural enemies because of the geographical location of the big cities. We
have found weapons on sites, but there is debate whether they have been used in conflict with
other groups or as a defense against wildlife.4

4
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/ancient-
india/a/the-indus-river-valley-civilizations, last accessed 3rd October, 2017.
14
 7. LIFE OF PEOPLE

Going on with life of people in Indus Valley Civilization at that time, today visitors to
Mohenjo-Daro say that the temperature is around 38 degree Celsius desert heat. Five thousand
years ago, the Indus Valley was probably greener, with more trees and animals such as elephant,
rhinoceroses, antelope,, water buffalo and tigers. Farmers grew crops using water from the rivers,
in order to feed workers living in cites.

Cities were remarkable well-planned, with streets, brick houses and excellent sanitation.
Skilled workers made goods that were traded into central Asia, Mesopotamia and along the
shores of the Arabian Sea. Indus skills and technology involved writing, mathematics, sculpture,
seals, bricks, boats, carts, pottery, jewellery and metal tools. Life in the Indus cities seems to
have been prosperous and peaceful, from about 2500 to 1700 B.C.

Two cities, in particular, were excavated at the sites of Mohenjo-Daro in Lower Indus
and Harappa upstream. The evidence suggests that they had a highly developed urban life; many
homes had wells and bathrooms, as well as an elaborate underground drainage system. The
social conditions of the people were comparable to those of Sumer and above the Babylonian
and Egyptian contemporaries. These cities show a well planned urbanization system.

The evidence suggests that they had a very developed life in the city; many homes have
pools and bathrooms as well as a vacuum drainage system. There is evidence of a certain level of
contact between the Indian Valley and the Near East civilization. Commercial, religious and
artistic relations have been recorded in Sumerian documents, where the people of the Indo
Valley are known as Meluhhaites and the Indo Valley is called Meluhha. The following account
has been dated to about 2000 BCE: "The Noise Saints, the black earth men, bring all sorts of
exotic goods to Naram-Sin of Agate." (Haywood, page 76, The Agade Curse) Indo civilization
had a system of writing that remains a mystery today: all attempts to decipher it have failed. This
is one of the reasons why the Indian Valley civilization is one of the least known of ancient
civilizations of ancient times. Examples of this writing system have been found in ceramics,
amulets, stamped seals and even copper weights and tablets.

Another point of discussion is the nature of the relationship between these cities. Whether
it is independent city-states or part of a larger kingdom is not clear at all. Since the Hindu

15
people's writing remains indefinite and no sculptures of rulers or representations of battles and
military campaigns have been found, the evidence indicating in any direction is inconclusive.

At its peak, the Indus Valley Civilization may have had a population of over five million
people. The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, a technical and political process
concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment. They are also noted for
their baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large,
nonresidential buildings.5

5
https://www.ancient.eu/Indus_Valley_Civilization/, last accessed 5th October, 2017.
16
 8. RELIGION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Little is known about Harappan's religion and language. A collection of texts written on
clay and stone plates discovered at Harappa - which were carbon dated 3300-3200 ECB - contain
three-dimensional marks, which appear to be written from right to left. There is a remarkable
debate on whether it is a coded language at all and whether it is related to the Indo-European and
Southern languages of the Indian language. The writing of Indo remains indecipherable without
comparable symbols and is thought to have evolved independently of writing in Mesopotamia
and ancient Egypt. Researchers are using technological advances in computing to try to decipher
it.

The Harappan religion remains subject to speculation as well. It was widely suggested
that Harappans worshiped a mother goddess symbolizing fertility. Unlike Egyptian and
Mesopotamian civilizations, the Indian Valley civilization does not seem to have temples or
palaces that would give rise to religious rites or specific deities. Many indo-valley gaskets
include animal shapes; some represent animals transported into processions, while others display
mythological creations like unicorns, scholars speculating on the role of animals in the religions
of the Indus Valley. The interpretations of these animal motives include the meaning of clan
membership, elite class or kinship structure. A goblet of Mohenjo-daro shows a half human
monster, half buffalo that attacks a tiger. This may be a reference to the Sumerian myth of a
monster created by Aruru - Sumerian Earth and the goddess of fertility - to fight against
Gilgamesh, the hero of an ancient epic poetry of Mesopotamia. This is another hint of
international trade in Harappan culture.

The Indus Valley excavation sites have revealed several examples of the art of culture,
including sculptures, seals, ceramics, gold jewelry and anatomical figures in terracotta, bronze
and soapstone. Among the various statues of gold, terracotta and stone was the figure of a king
priest who showed a beard and a printed tunic. Terracotta works also included cows, bears,
monkeys and dogs. In addition to the figurines, it is believed that people in the Valley of the
Indus River have created necklaces, bracelets and other ornaments.6

9. TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION

6
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/ancient-
india/a/the-indus-river-valley-civilizations, last accessed 5th October, 2017.
17
 The economy of civilization seems to be heavily dependent on trade, favored by major
advances in transport technology. Harappa civilization may have been the first to use wheel-
transport, in the form of animal carriages identical to those that have been seen today in southern
Asia. It also appears to have built ships and boats - a claim backed by archaeological discoveries
of a huge dredged canal and what is considered a mooring system in the coastal city of Lothal.

Trade focused on the import of raw materials to be used in Harappan City laboratories,
including Iranian and Afghan minerals, lead and copper from other parts of India, Chinese jade
and cedar wood floating in the rivers of Himalayas and Kashmir. Other commercial products
included pottery, gold, silver, metal, pearls, tool buckles, sea shells, pearls and precious stones
such as lapis lazuli and turquoise.

There was a vast network of maritime exchanges running between Harappan and
Mesopotamia civilizations. Harappan stamps and jewelry were found in archaeological sites in
Mesopotamian regions, which include most of Iraq, Kuwait, and parts of Syria. Long-distance
maritime trade on bodies of water such as the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf
could have been feasible with the development of table vessels with a single central tree
containing a woven cane or woven fabric.

During the ECB 4300-3200 BC period, also known as the copper age, the area of the
civilization of the Indus Valley shows ceramic similarities with Southern Turkmenistan and
northern Iran. During the first Harappan period (around 3200-2600 BC), cultural ceramic
similarities, seals, statues and ornaments document caravan trade with Central Asia and the
Iranian plateau.7

7
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-indus-river-valley-
civilizations/, last accessed October 6th, 2017.
18
 10. INNOVATIONS

The people of the Indus River Valley Civilization achieved many notable advances in
technology, including great accuracy in their systems and tools for measuring length and mass.
Fire-baked bricks—which were uniform in size and moisture-resistant—were important in
building baths and sewage structures and are evidence that Harappans were among the first to
develop a system of standardized weights and measures. The consistency of brick size across
cities also suggests unity across the various urban areas, which is evidence of a broader
civilization.

Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and Rakhigarhi, recently partially excavated, demonstrate the

first known urban health systems in the world. The ancient Indian drainage and drainage systems
developed and used in cities across the Indus region were far more advanced than those in
contemporary Middle East urban sites and even more efficient than in many areas of Pakistan
and the United States, India today. The single houses drew water from the wells, while the
drainage water was directed to the pipelines covered by the main roads. Houses open only to
inner courtyards and smaller streets, and even the smallest houses on the outskirts of the city are
considered linked to the system, which supports the conclusion that cleaning was a matter of
great importance.

Harappans are known for sealing the gasket, cutting patterns on the underside of a gasket,
a small carved object used to stamp. They used these distinctive stamps to identify property and
to stamp clay on commercial items. Spotlight-decorated with animal figures, such as elephants,
tigers and water buffalo, were one of the most commonly discovered artifacts in the cities of the
Indus Valley. The civilization of the Valley of the Indus River is considered a society of the
Bronze Age; the inhabitants of the old River Valley of the Indus developed new techniques in
metallurgy, the science of work with copper, bronze, lead and pond. Harappans also made
intricate craftsmanship using products made of semi-precious stone from Carnelian.

Evidence shows that Harappans participated in a vast network of sea and maritime
exchanges ranging from Central Asia to the Middle East. The economy of civilization seems to
be heavily dependent on trade, favored by major advances in transport technology. Harappan
civilization may have been the first to use wheel transport in the form of cattle trucks identical to

19
those seen throughout South Asia today. It also appears to have built ships and boats - a claim
backed by archaeological discoveries of a huge dredged canal and what is considered a mooring
system in the coastal city of Lothal. Harappans also participates in the processing of shells, and
the shells used in their crafts come from those of Oman's modern coast.

Trade focused on the import of raw materials to be used in Harappan City laboratories,
including Iranian and Afghan minerals, lead and copper from other parts of India, Chinese jade
and cedar wood floating in the rivers of Himalayas and Kashmir. Other commercial products
included terracotta pots, gold, silver, metals, beads, flakes for the manufacture of instruments,
shells, pearls and precious stones colored as lapis lazuli and turquoise.

One of the ways in which historians know the maritime trading network between
Harappan and Mesopotamia civilizations is the discovery of Harappan seals and jewelery in
archaeological sites in Mesopotamian regions, which include most of modern Iraq, Kuwait and
parts of Syria. Long-distance maritime transport on water bodies - such as the Arabian Sea, the
Red Sea and the Persian Gulf - can become feasible with the development of table vessels each
featuring a single central tree supporting a woven cane woven or of cloth.

Historians have also made inferences about the networks of exchange based on the
similarities between artifacts between civilizations. Between 4300 and 3200 BC, part of the
Calcutian period, also known as the copper age pottery of the Indian Valley civilization area,
show similarities with southern Turkmenistan and northern Iran. During the first period
Harappan - about 3200 BC to 2600 BC - there are cultural analogies in ceramics, stamps,
statuettes and ornaments that document caravan trade with Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.8

8
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/ancient-
india/a/the-indus-river-valley-civilizations, last accessed 7th October,2017.
20
 11. DECLINE

By 1800 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization saw the beginning of their decline: Writing
started to disappear, standardized weights and measures used for trade and taxation purposes fell
out of use, the connection with the Near East was interrupted, and some cities were gradually
abandoned. The reasons for this decline are not entirely clear, but it is believed that the drying up
of the Saraswati River, a process which had begun around 1900 BCE, was the main cause. Other
experts speak of a great flood in the area. Either event would have had catastrophic effects on
agricultural activity, making the economy no longer sustainable and breaking the civic order of
the cities.

Around 1500 BCE, a large group of nomadic cattle-herders, the Aryans, migrated into the
region from central Asia. The Aryans crossed the Hindu Kush mountains and came in contact
with the Indus Valley Civilization. This was a large migration and used to be seen as an invasion,
which was thought to be the reason for the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization, but this
hypothesis is not unanimously accepted today. 

Archaeological evidence indicates that trade with Mesopotamia, located largely in

modern Iraq, and seemed to have ended. The advanced drainage system and baths of the great
cities were built over or blocked. Writing began to disappear and the standardized weights and
measures used for trade and taxation fell out of use. Scholars have put forth differing theories to
explain the disappearance of the Harappans, including an Aryan Invasion and climate change
marked by overwhelming monsoons.

Until recently, it was believed that Indus Cities were destroyed by the Aryans who
entered India from Iran and Afghanistan through northwestern passes such as the Bolan and the
Khyber. The evidences of this theory were two pronged. Firstly, there is a reference in the Rig-
Veda, that Indra destroyed hostile people of Hariyuppa (Harappa) called Dasyus who lived in
forts called Pur (Thus, one name of Indra is Purandhar, destroyer of Pur). Secondly, there was a
discovery of some skeletons of men, women and children from the lower city of Mohenjo Daro,
killed during the so-called last massacre. Most ardent profounder of this theory was Sir Mortimer
Wheeler.

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However, most scholars and archaeologists dismiss the Wheeler’s theory to be too simplistic.
The argument against this is that a Pur of Rig-Veda was not a fort of Indus Valley but just a
structure of filmy ramparts and stockades etc. Further, Rig-Veda never mentions anything about
some of the recognizable features of the sites such as streets, houses, wells, drains, granaries etc.

Thus, the Indus Valley Civilization came to an end. Over the course of several centuries,
the Aryans gradually settled down and took up agriculture. The language brought by the Aryans
gained supremacy over the local languages: the origin of the most widely spoken languages
today in south Asia goes back to the Aryans, who introduced the Indo-European languages into
the Indian subcontinent. Other features of modern Indian society, such as religious practices and
caste division, can also be traced back to the times of the Aryan migrations. Many pre-Aryan
customs still survive in India today. Evidence supporting this claim includes: the continuity of
pre-Aryan traditions; practices by many sectors of Indian society; and also the possibility that
some major gods of the Hindu pantheon actually originated during the time of the Indus Valley
Civilization and were kept "alive" by the original inhabitants through the centuries.9

9
https://www.ancient.eu/Indus_Valley_Civilization/, 7th October, 2017.
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 12. CONCLUSION

The project completely tells about Indus valley civilization, their way of life, social
system, their innovations and their economic or trading activities. The life of people in that time
is much systemized and people used to live the ethical life which means they lived in houses
with sanitations, drainage systems. Though Aryans came after them around 1500 B.C, those
doesn’t live like the people of Indus Valley civilization, they divided into groups and distributed
work. The economic system was mostly dependent on trade and the people of that time created
ships and boats even.

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 13. BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS:

1. ‘UNESCO’ published book on Indus Valley Civilization, by A. H. Dani and B.K. Thapar.
2. ‘Ancient Cities of Indus Valley Civilization’, by Jonathan M. Kenoyer.
3. ‘Daily life in Indus Valley Civilization’, by Brian Williams.
4. ‘The Penguin History of Early India From Origins to AD 1300’, Romila Thapar.

E- SOURCES:

1. Article ‘Indus Valley Civilization’ published by Critian Violatti in blog: Ancient History
Encyclopedia; publishes on 30 October 2013.
2. Blog: Boundless World History; article by unknown author with title ‘The Indus River
Valley Civilization’.

WEBSITE:

1. https://www.ancient.eu/Indus_Valley_Civilization/
2. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-
beginnings/ancient-india/a/the-indus-river-valley-civilizations
3. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-indus-river-
valley-civilizations/
4.

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